President Mahama charms Chiefs & Celebrities-A wake up call to all voters to join the band wagon News Analysis “Charisma is the result of effective leadership, not the other way around.” --- W. Bennis & B. Nanus, in “Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge”

Traditionally, chiefs, opinion and community leaders are not supposed to engage in active politics, by virtue of the fact that, they serve as local authorities to settle disputes and cater for the day to day welfare of the various communities among others roles.

But the current spate of open endorsements His Excellency President Mahama is receiving from many Chiefs and Queen Mothers, left, right and center- mostly from the southern territories in the country is bizarre and strange. And any sober thinker and brilliant observer of this scenario from afar and near should not blame them. In the sense that, human as they are, they have been captivated by the God-given charm and charisma of His Excellency, and as a result could not hide their feelings, losing sight of the role they play in the society. They seem to see wisdom in what Marianne Williamson wrote, saying that, “Charisma is a sparkle in people that money can’t buy. It’s an invisible energy with visible effect.” And this is certainly what manifests in the personality of President Mahama.

Chiefs are discerning and wise people and they realized that President Mahama’s sense of demeanor that makes him humble, peaceful, tolerant, honest, handsome, and magnanimous among others, is diametrically opposed to Nana Addo’s traits that makes him arrogant, aggressive, pompous, deceptive, warsome and ugly(excuse my last word, though I am calling a spade a spade not a spoon, folks).

Some of the Chiefs and Queen Mothers that could not hide their affections to the President, are from Brong Ahafo, Volta, Ashanti, and Eastern regions(the two perceived strong hold of the NPP). They realized that, President Mahama by divine order, has inherited some awesome and amazing traits of his predecessor, late President Mills and they would prefer to continue with a leadership which is characterized by those qualities, which serve as a lesson to the up and coming generation of future leaders of the country.

Even most of the entertainment celebrities in the country could not hide their admirations for the President, they simply could tell that he is the winner and are coming out boldly endorsing and campaigning for him. They also find expression in what Henry Van Dyke said, that “There is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful temperament.” And just like the chiefs our celebrities also discern that cheerful temperament and sense of humility of President Mahama, as against Nana Addo’s war-infested tone. This is part and parcel of what is surging and soaring his popularity exponentially. Undoubtedly, the NPP’s Nana Akufo Addo, prior to the death of our God-fearing late President Mills, was thinking that he would have a field day, with so much optimistic zeal and enthusiasm of a landslide victory at the December elections, as he and the NPP seemed to make a political capital out of the internal wrangling and minor differences which initially characterized the rank and file of our great Akatamanso party-a factor which is naturally bound to occur to every human institution. However, upon the sudden death of our late President Mills, which culminated into the ascension of President Mahama on to the presidential pedestal, a miracle they were expecting has made a u-turn into a mirage. Because in spite of the bitter sorrow and heart bleed that the NDC and by extension, the entire people of Ghana had experienced, God being so good, has made it a blessing in disguise for us. In the sense that, He in his own wisdom has decided to make our late President a “Biblical Sacrificial Lamb” in order to unite the rank and file of our party. Hence the sudden emergence of His Excellency President Mahama on the presidential slot, has completely transformed the campaign dynamics, thereby shifting the political pendulum of support more on the side of the President and the NDC. This is a clear manifestation that, God has given us His powerful and pervasive seal of approval, in order to lead His Excellency President Mahama to the promise land, to enable him continue on the enviable legacy of the late President Mills, an epitome of peace, tolerance tranquility, honesty, integrity and magnanimity.

President Mahama is a photo-finished thorough bred that has risen through the ranks in the political landscape; he started as a Member of Parliament, since the inception of the fourth republican democracy in 1992. He became a Deputy Minister of Communications and later on took over as the Principal Minister of this sector, and the Vice-President and currently the President. A skilled communicator, a historian, a journalist and an author. He recently exhibited his exceptional and extraordinary communications skills at the IEA’s debate. One would expect him to exude authoritative and intimidating posture, by virtue of being the President, but lo and behold, it was rather the NPP’s Nana Addo, (a fighter of a losing battle and never look presidential) who portrayed that arrogant and aggressive mannerism in the debate. And thanks to Hassan Ayariga, he was reminded of his rowdy “All die be die” and tribalistic undertone, “Yen Akanfuo” mantra, at the tail end of the last debate. This will continuously ring a bell in the minds of the electorate, as they queue to cast their ballot in two weeks.

Throughout the debate, one could easily tell the impact the submission being made by the President was having in the minds most of the audience, as well as the moderators, by their body language and facial expressions. Even some gurus of the NPP confessed during the post-debate analysis by the media, that the President has easily won the debate. Any right thinking person, who observes issues through the lens of objectivity would confirm that, it was President Mahama who injected live and liveliness into the discourse and he rightly exposed Nana Addo’s ignorance of the Ghana’s foreign policy, by making a highly inflammatory allegation that does not hold water. He said Ghana is harboring rebels from Ivory Coast, who intend to topple the Ivorian President. Justice imagine, someone who prides himself, even in the course of the debate to have served as Ghana’s Minister of Foreign affairs for five year good years, and even had the privilege to be a one-time Chairman of the United Nations Security Council, to have made such an allegation. This is an anti-climax and an affront to international diplomacy, what a shame! So if our traditional leaders, as local governors could see through their minds eyes, the unique leadership qualities in our President, that makes him outstanding candidate among the rest, and are inwardly and outwardly endorsing him, that should simply tell us that, he was already chosen and predestined by the highest authority, the Al-mighty God to be our leader and hence, He the Almighty is telepathically and intuitively communicating to his subordinates, our chiefs that, He has chosen him as our leader, so they need to endorse him. This is even a recent prophesy by a group of Christian leaders.

Fellow Ghanaian electorate, do not be deceived by Nana Addo’s SHS freebies campaign. He is just building castles in the air and throwing dust into your eyes. If free quality education is achievable within a shortest possible time, it is only the NDC government under the able leadership of His Excellency President Mahama who could provide it. Even the current social intervention by the government in the educational sector is relieving most parents, because there are programs such as; free school uniforms and exercise books, and school feeding projects, started by the NPP. But the school feeding in particular was ironically used to serve only privilege schools, like the Achimotas and the Morning Stars- where the children of the NPP gurus(including Nana Addo’s) and rich men’s kids in Ghana attend, and an investigation established that, those kids would and waste the food and throw it away, because they are from privilege homes and eat better than those. However, when the NDC took over four years ago, we have been able to broaden the net of the beneficiary students, who are mostly from “non-Ivy league”(as they called such schools in the US) or non-top class high schools in the towns and villages, whose parents are poor. And this project is attracting heavy government subvention.

But Nana Addo and his NPP know that, in their desperate penchant and predilection for power, are just deceiving you the electorate, because it is simply not feasible to provide free quality SHS within a short span. Even in the US and the rest of the western world, whose economies are more advanced to provide free education, people who want more quality education, would achieve that only when they take their children to the private schools and pay fees. Because the free public schools lack wherewithal and facilities for effective learning.

Fellow Ghanaian electorate, as we are closing in on the Election Day, slated for December 7th, 2012, I know some of you might be in a dilemma as to which candidate or party to vote for. Even though you have an ultimate discretional power to decide, I would like to opine to you to render a sober thought and reflection, as to why our chiefs in particular are endorsing President Mahama, even at the expense of their stools. And most importantly, without the NDC in power, who would continue with the indelible legacy of the enviable leader of peace, tolerance and tranquility, late President Mills, because if you vote against the NDC, it presupposes that, you rejected the good track records of the late President, whose legacy truly deserves your sympathy votes, if nothing at all, and posterity would always remember that.

Fact is take it or leave it, the NPP during their awful and abysmal eight years in office abandoned virtually all developmental projects being implemented by the NDC, during its last years in office, and history is likely to recur itself, if the NPP is back in power. It always reminds me of the wisdom from one of my favorite American writers, Maya Angelou, a prolific author and a poet that “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, will not be lived again.”

So I therefore implore you, who have the country at heart, and want to have a leader with a human centered development approach, a peaceful and charismatic man, who is determined to fight corruption and cocaine deals, which was the trade mark of the NPP past administration, and do not want to see these embezzlement and drug trafficking back in the system, to vote for His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama on December 7th, 2012, to enable him proceed with the already progressive Better Ghana Agenda in our Manifesto.

Husseini Y. Baba AlWaiz, Press Secretary, NDC New York